"Due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events, the Itawamba County School District has decided not to host a prom Itawamba Agricultural High School this year. It is our hope that private citizens will organize an event for the juniors and seniors. However, at this time, we feel that it is in the best interest of the Itawamba County School District, after taking into consideration the education, safety and well being of our students, that the Itawamba County School District not host a junior/senior prom... We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this causes anyone."
-- Official statement from the Itawamba County School District in Fulton, Mississippi in response to pressure from the ACLU, which challenged the district's decision to bar a female student from bringing her girlfriend to prom
So, yeah -- rather than allow a lesbian student to bring a date to prom, which probably would've caused a minor stir and not much more, the school system throws a temper tantrum and shuts the whole thing down, thereby drawing national attention and an official lawsuit (to say nothing of making the student a walking target for supposedly ruining everyone's senior year). I'd ask what the hell they're teaching these kids, but I think it's pretty obvious.
When school district administrators say, by the way, that they hope someone will step in and host a private function, the subtext is "because then there won't be any of those pesky Constitutional laws broken when the undesirables are excluded." Not being tolerant or at the very least selfishly hyperopic* enough to turn the other way while this kid -- 18-year-old Constance McMillen -- suffers through an undercooked meal, dances to Taylor Swift, and dodges chewing tobacco spit in the company of the girl she's sure she'll love forever-and-ever speaks volumes about the thinking, or lack thereof, in Fulton, Mississippi (population 4,000 BC). Kind of the way that gay adults should have every right to experience the visceral horrors of marriage for themselves if they're so inexplicably inclined, likewise there's no reason gay kids shouldn't get to learn alongside their straight classmates just how much prom sucks.
Besides, you silly hicks, the last time I checked lesbianism wasn't contagious or anything. If it were, Jayne would've been one since about ten minutes after we first walked through the door of the Home Depot in midtown Atlanta back in 2004.
Seriously, we're talking Level 4 Hot Zone.
*In deference** to those who go to Itawamba High, it means long-sighted.
**It means "as a courtesy."
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